Ptoh
Ptoh (pronounced toh or thoh (the "P" is silent)) is an interplanetary being, imprisoned by The Coven and the Eaters deep inside Qud for millennia, that influences his servants into assimilating the minds of particularly powerful Espers. Ptoh is also mentioned in the book "On the Origins and Nature of the Dark Calculus" and in the story of Saad Amus' legendary artifact, "Flume-Flier of the Sky-Bear", and is the credited creator of the Amaranthine Prism, that drove Mamon Souldrinker into insanity. It seems that Ptoh, although imprisoned, has had great influence over the history of Qud and perhaps even recent events. Lore Pieces Amaranthine Prism “When the Eaters lived and skirred the stars, they visited the worlds of a thousand thousand different beings, and those beings likewise visited our own world. Several of those beings had assembled a coven that spanned the firmament, and they welcomed the Eaters into its fold. For ages the civilizations of the coven knew kindness and prosperity, and to all reaches of the clustered cosmos did the domain of the coven stretch. One of the beings of the coven hailed from a faraway and darkling star. With Its mind It could fold the fabric of space and time as you or I might fold a supper cloth. To the coven It was known as Ptoh.” “For reasons we can but fathom the civilizations of the stars indicted Ptoh. It was the will of the coven that It be held on our very world in the bondage of the Eaters. They contrived for Ptoh a prison from which It could not fold Itself away, and there Ptoh languished for eons. In time, the Eaters left or perished, and the coven was forgotten to our world. Yet here Ptoh remains imprisoned.” Flume-Flier of the Sky-Bear Whilom, when Salum was the lond of Qud, Ther was highte Amus-an a sturdy Saad; Of Caiafas was he lord magistrate, Swich skilful arms dide earn him that estaat; What with his wysdom and his hardynesse, He conquered al the regne of Aldersesse; And thurgh the eyr dashed undernethe his shroud, And rafte the heddes of all thoos byg and proud; And when the Coven quod by oon assent, That starry Ptoh shal been to prison sente, He leden all the wei and shette the dore, While skerren men dide quake behinde his foore; So buryen nought the Beren in a tumbe, But fresen now to interrupt his dome; And oon day resurrect to fighte agayn, And maken sones of Salum all full fayn. Psychic Glimmer descriptions It's a familiar feeling. When someone has watched you in the past, when it's light that betrayed your presence, you made a friend of the darkness. You pulled your hat brim low over your eyes. You stepped behind the cover of a thatched wall. But those who watch you now watch in spite of such simple obstructions. Their sight isn't mediated by the rays of a gleaming star or torch but by something much older. If there are ways to conceal yourself from these seeing eyes, if there are new kinds of darknesses to befriend, you know nothing of them. You've discovered a way to conceal yourself. For now. What you understood to be the psychic sea was a only sic pond. There are other watchers now, countless in number, beyond the gulf of materiality. Points light glimmer in all directions, but what are directions on a space that cannot be ordered? All you know now is of an aether vaster than the very mathematics that describe it. And you are not nor will you ever be again alone. You've discovered a way to conceal yourself from extradimensional watchers. For now. Your psychic glimmer represents how noticeable you are in the vast psychic aether. As your mental mutations increase in level, so does your psychic glimmer and the frequency, strength, and number of those who desire to absorb your mind. Currently, you are being watched and pursued by ospreys, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who pluck larval espers from their egg sacs. Currently, you are being watched and pursued by harriers, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who pluck fledgling espers from the shallows. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions. Currently, you are being watched and pursued by owls, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who snatch espers from the nighted weald. You are also visible to psychic beings from other dimensions. Currently, you are being watched and pursued by condors, Ptoh's servants and birds of psychic prey who snatch thriving espers from the vast wood On the Origins and Nature of the Dark Calculus Peculiarly, support for the injunction was unanimous. Of note, even the spacefolder Ptoh agreed to abandon its investigation into the forbidden calculi from the reaches of its bleak star. Though the manner of its consent was not without controversy; to announce its accord, it inverted the color charges of quarks in a small region of space, causing a research station to collapse in on itself. Nonetheless, Ptoh's consent is testament to the degree of existential anxiety that could cause investigation into the penumbra calculus to go dark.Category:Lore